help with fat, carbs, and sodium

Hi everyone!  I have another question :).  I'm wondering how I figure out how many total fat grams, carbs, and sodium I should have daily.  I may not be looking in the right place. 

Also, as long as you eat your recommended daily calories for your weight loss do the fat grams, carbs, and sodium matter much?  I'm a little confused on which of these I should be the most focused on.  Will you still lose weight as long as you stay within the caloric guideline? 

Hope someone can straighten this out for me, I'm so frustrated lol.  Thanks again for your support and help!

Good question lol.............all i can say to help answer is that I do not worry bout my fat grams, carb, or sodium and i'm still losing weight just watching my calories................I think low cal food is most likely gonna have a reasonable amount of all of the other items...............hope i helped a little Good Luck :)

That is what I'm leaning towards also....however I know sodium can cause you to retain water.  Anyone else know?  Thanks.....

Btw...In case it makes a difference I'm trying to have my calorie intake equal 1250-1300 a day.  Thanks

The research I did when I first started is as follows:

50% of your calories should come from carbohydrates.
25% from good fats (unsaturated)
25% from proteins

You should consume less than 2500mg sodium per day

and also more than 25G fiber per day.

You can use the analysis tool in your account to check these numbers with the awesome pie chart this site provides. :)

Hope this helps.

i agree with cjeka on the %'s. if you really want to calculate the actual grams of each one, you need to know that fat has 9 cals per gram, carbs and protein are 4 cals per gram. so, take the % of your total cals for each one and divide by that number to get the number of grams you need of each. e.g. 50% of 1200 cals = 600 cals divided by 4 = 150 grams of carbs.

Oh that helps so much!  Thanks you two. 

Kinda depends on what stage you're at as far as your weight loss goes.  I would divide weight loss stages in thirds.  The first 1/3 it won't matter so much, just that you're eating better.  Second 1/3 of your weight loss your meal sizes and timing become more of a factor in helping to lose and the final 1/3 I think it is all about portions, %'s of c/p/f, sodium/water and the timing.  Keep the salt low, make healthy organic choices as much as possible and keep your water high and you should be fine.  If you hit a plateau, add 50 extra calories to your meals (apple and string cheese should be about 60 calories).  Good luck.

Use the analysis tool... you can get a specific day or an average for a period of time.